Historical studies suggest that all ideas, including the philosophical, scientific, and religious, are relative to the culture in which they are formulated. After clarifying the concept of relativism, and exploring the epistemological reasons why knowledge is relative, Kaufman argues that these admissions are not fatal to the achievement of valid knowledge in philosophy and theology.--D. D. O.

Thirty distinguished American philosophers and scientists have contributed pieces ranging form two to twenty pages, summing up their contributions to the third annual New York University Institute of Philosophy. Topics discussed are grouped under three heads: The Mind-Body Problem; The Brain and the Machine; and Concept-Formation. The discussion is lively and controversial, although not very consecutive. Very up-to-date on American research in cybernetics, but surprisingly unaware of contemporary European work in the areas discussed, e.g., the writings of the Phenomenologists and (...) Piaget.--D. D. O. (shrink)

Building on certain ideas of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, the author advances the hypothesis that the knowledge of personal qualities is epistemologically prior to the knowledge of "thing" qualities. We attain the clearness of things through intersubjective communication. Kwant supports his thesis by showing that knowledge of persons is not reducible to anything else and that all other knowledge is dependent on it. The argument is plausible but would have been more persuasive had the author appealed to some empirical tests.--D. D. (...) O. (shrink)

Papers read at the second International Colloquium of Phenomenology. Contributions include some of the major European representatives of the second generation of phenomenologists: Fink, Landgrebe, de Waehlens, Ingarden, and others. All of the papers deal with problems or assessments of Husserl's philosophy. Opinions differ sharply on many matters of substance in the interpretation of Husserl. Of special interest is the story of van Breda's dramatic rescue of Husserl's papers from Nazi Germany in 1938.--D. D. O.

A tribute volume of essays marking the 70th birthday of Dietrich von Hildebrand. The essays all center on the problems indicated in the title, and exhibit a rather different kind of Christian philosophizing, more in touch with contemporary philosophy. A complete bibliography of von Hildebrand's works is appended.--D. D. O.